Nagpur Municipal Corporation apathy continues to choke and kill trees

NAGPUR: Even after a year, the garden department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is yet to issue tenders for clearing the mouth of trees choked due to cementing and tiling. This apathy has resulted into the city losing many huge trees, an irreparable loss to the environment.

A huge tree near Bajaj Nagar square is on the verge of being uprooted. However, this tree can be saved if timely steps are initiated. Some branches of the tree are still green and the garden department can help revive it.

This is not an isolated case. Many trees have fallen prey to bureaucratic apathy and lack of speedy measures. TOI has been repeatedly highlighting the fact that trees in the city have been dying a slow death due to choking. A huge tree near VCA is a fitting example of the apathy of NMC officials towards the green cover in the city. This tree is left with no leaves and stands with a forlorn look. But the NMC officials are still in their slumber.

It's been over a year now, since the then standing committee chairman Sandeep Joshi had issued orders and released funds worth Rs 30 lakh to the garden department to clear the mouths of the trees. A number of trees on major roads in the city including Wardha Road, North Ambazari Road, West and East High Court Road are already choked and waiting to die. But nothing has been done till date to save them.

Garden superintendent NB Shrikhande said that there were some administrative issues and that papers for the work had been sent to the commissioner's office. "There are some queries from the commissioner's office. Once we clear the queries, we will get a go ahead signal from the commissioner's office," he said.

On why the department had taken more than a year to sort out the administrative issues, Shrikhande said that the financial year had changed since the money was given to them and that "all these things require time." But between all this paper work, the city trees are losing their fight against concretization. A leading internet portal has already raised an alarm over the deteriorating green cover of the city. Choking has been mentioned as the major reason for dying trees.

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